Edible PrcducU. 



a very clumsy means of finding out the real richness tof the land. But if a 11 the 

 indications above named give results tending to show that the soil is exhausted, it 

 will probably be wise to have the soil examined by a chemist, in order to 

 determine the most economical way of applying the manures which they have 

 shown to be necessary. 



Limits of space do not allow me here to ao into the question of the manures 

 adapted to special soils and special conditions. Suffice it to say that where the 

 principal deterioration is in luxuriance, there the most important manure con- 

 stituents will usually be organic matter and nitrogen, and these can best be supplied 

 by top-dressing with good bheel soil, if available, by cattle manure, by oil cake, 

 or by green manure. If deterioration in quality is chiefly to be treated, manure 

 containing phosphates appear of the greatest importance. There is one class of 

 manure whose effect has proved very great under many conditions, and the appli- 

 cation of which costs very little — I mean green manures. 



GREEN MANURES. 



First and foremost of these in the Indian districts come the leguminous 

 trees, of which the Albizzia stipulata is the chief. They not only manure the 

 soil by their leaves and roots, but also improve the condition of the land in which 

 they grow. Their effect is little seen during the first three years or so of their 

 life, but as they become mature they produce a dark healthy colour on the tea 

 all round them which is quite different from the remainder of the blocks in which 

 they are planted. The best practice places them sixty feet apart throughout the 

 tea and keeps them well lopped so that they do not overhang the tea bushes. 



In the second order come the leguminous bushes, of which the only one 

 hitherto tried on an extended scale is the boga medeloa (Tephrosia Candida) which 

 has given excellent results both in Assam and Sylhet. A few seeds, generally three 

 or four, are planted on a small heap between alternate bushes in alternate rows in 

 April or May, and protected from the hoeing coolies by a tripod of three sticks. 

 By the end of the season the bushes are seven or eight feet high, and from this 

 time the whole should be kept trimmed to a narrow shape, and everything that 

 is pruned off buried with the hoeing. This trimming should be done four or five 

 times every year, and may well de done before every round of hoeing, and the 

 material be buried with the hoe. The bush should be kept so that it does not 

 interfere with the pluckers, nor materially shade the tea. At the end of three 

 years the whole plants are pulled up, and buried in trenches between the rows of 

 tea. This method has, as has already been said, given good results on light land, 

 and the increased vigour in old and deteriorated tea has quickly shown itself in 

 the yield, as well as in the appearance of the bushes. The boga medeloa has the 

 special advantage of growing in very poor light soils, such as would not grow any 

 crop of almost all the other green manures which have been tried. 



In the third rank of green manures stand the annual crops which are grown 

 for a short time on the land and then hoed in as a whole. In India, very great 

 results have already been obtained by the use of mati kalai (Phaseolus mungo\ 

 which is sown broadcast on the land at the end of April or the early part of May, 

 and hoed in at the latter part of June or the early part of July. It is found unwise 

 to allow it to remain on the land more than about eight weeks. During 1905, 

 equally good results have been obtained on an experimental scale with the other 

 plants, Crotolaria striata (the crop principally used for this purpose in Ceylon) 

 dhaincha (Sesbania ca?mabina), a common crop of Lower Bengal. Each of these 

 remains on the land eight to ten weeks, and is then hoed into the soil. The effect 

 seems partially due to the considerable improvement which they always effect in 

 the texture of the land, and partly to the very large amount of nitrogen which 



